


Shocked

by Iaintnosidekick



Category: Batman Beyond
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bat Family, Batman - Freeform, Batman Beyond - Freeform, Bruce Wayne is a Good Dad, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Major Character Injury, Old Bruce Wayne, Platonic Relationships, Terry McGinnis - Freeform, Unknown time, Which Powers is not specified
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 02:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9299426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iaintnosidekick/pseuds/Iaintnosidekick
Summary: When Terry races against all odds to save the city of Gotham, it may turn out that Gotham has to work to save him.





	

The moment Terry burst onto the rooftop, he knew this wasn't going to end well. When Bruce had told him about Power's plan to set off a bomb at his gala, they both knew there wasn't enough time to come up with a real plan. Terry charged into the Wayne/Powers building with the suite and had to fight off Power's personal army while Bruce filled in the details. While Terry was in the lobby, Bruce told him the bomb was in Powers' watch. In the office, he told him the gala was on the roof and as he pushed his way up the stairwell, Terry heard Bruce tell him the bomb was nuclear. Terry had no plan when he blew the roof door open on a hundred well-dressed guest, and he still didn't know what he was going to do when he locked eyes with Powers. The only thing he knew was that he had to stop the bomb, so he launched himself at the business man. 

Despite Terry’s blunt force tackling Powers to the ground, Powers seemed to anticipate this, once they landed on the ground, Powers kicked Terry with both legs, sending Terry flying over him. However, with only a second to guess, Terry grabbed one of Powers’ wrist and only by chance did he feel a watch hidden under his dress jacket. In a panic, Terry gripped the watch and used the momentum for Powers’ kick to rip it off. 

Terry landed on his feet and began to sprint across the roof. The crowd of people had separated at the shock of Batman barreling into their party, but Terry hardly saw them as he struggled with a gadget on his wrist. He didn’t know if the bomb was remote activated, but just in case Terry secured the watch to the end of his grappling hook. Bruce was screaming something in his ear, but he didn’t hear it as he reached the edge of the roof. With one swift motion, Terry jumped into the air, shot the bomb up at an angle, and gripped a batarang with another hand. He was just about to cut the rope extending out beyond the roof when another shot rang out into the night air. Terry’s body convulsed and he nearly dropped the batarang. His chest was screaming, but his mind was louder. Before the rope could become taught, he sliced it with the batarang just as another sound hit him in the shoulder. 

Bruce's voice cried out into his ear, but Terry couldn't process anything as his body hit the roof's rail and he fell back onto the roof. Something in his chest was burning him alive and he couldn't get his lungs to breath for him. Dark spots were closing in on his vision from all corners and a wave of panic began to chill his veins. In the distance, he thought he could hear someone laughing, but everything was suddenly silenced by the sound of an explosion ripping through the entire city.  
* * *  
Everyone watch in utter horror as the flash of light covered the entire city and died down into a body of fire. From the security to the guest, the entire roof gawked at the bomb's power and slowly began to process what they had just witnessed. Batman had taken something from Powers and it had exploded above the city. Yet even when the flames became nothing but smoke, no one could even move. They had escaped death and only because of the man bleeding on the edge of the roof. 

A woman was the first to snap out of her shock by rushing toward the fallen Batman. Her glittering blue dress soaked up his pooling blood as she knelt next to the hero. The crowd watched as she checked for his pulse and collectively jumped when she snapped to look at them. She was scanning the sea of people around her and when she saw Powers trying to step toward the exit she began to scream. 

“Security! Someone! Stop him!”

The guest followed the woman’s pointed finger and their stares froze Powers in his tracks. The soldiers that had just been fighting Batman quickly snapped out of their astonishment and charged their own boss. Powers lifted the gun in his hands, but a man in a green jacket immediately slapped it out of his grip before the two security guards attacked him. Powers began to scream and thrash when they got him on the floor but the crowd’s attention snapped back to Batman when the woman called out again. 

“You!” she pointed to a small girl in yellow. The girl’s face whitened when the woman commanded her to, “Go call 911.”

She then turned back to the crowd and shouted, “Does anyone know CPR?”

There was no movement from the guest until a man with a red dress shirt pushed through the crowd. “I’m a nurse,” was all he said before kneeling on the opposite side of Batman.

The woman nodded and told the nurse that Batman had a pulse but no signs of normal breathing. 

The crowd could only watch with an extreme weight of fear as the woman and the nurse worked to save their hero's life. Thought the woman remained calm, with every round of rescue breathing she began to lose bit by bit of her demanding demeanor. 

The police arrived and the Commissioner rushed to where Batman laid. She asked the woman what had happened and began to bark orders when she finished. Other officers took Powers away in handcuffs, but not before EMS placed Batman onto a gurney. From inside the police vehicle, Powers watched him being wheeled into an ambulance and began to laugh manically.  
* * *  
There was a man standing at the hospital doors when the ambulance pulled up. He wasn’t blocking the emergency room staff as they rushed past him, but when they came back pushing Batman on the gurney, he held up his hand. The nurses slowly brought the gurney to a halt in front of the old man despite not knowing why. They all just watched as the stone-faced man pulled out what they thought was a remote and waved it over the Batman. A hiss escaped the black cloth and the man stepped out of the doorway.

Bruce watched as they hospital staff snapped out of their initial shock and continued rushing Terry into to the hospital. When they had disappeared behind a set of swinging door, he noticed one nurse standing to the side as if debating whether to approach him or not. Faking a steady composer, he spoke to her first. 

“Miss, where is the waiting room?”  
* * *  
The doctor was waiting in the operation room. He, like everyone else in the city, had seen the explosion in the sky and had mentally prepared himself for a sudden increase in emergency victims. However, when he had gotten the call about a man with two bullets in his back, the last person he expected to see was Batman being dragged onto her operating table. His surprise did not last long as the nurse began to shout the facts. 

"This is a male of unknown age," she told him and the other staff began to prepare for surgery, "Two bullets entered his upper abdomen and left shoulder from behind. The first responder on the scene said she had an initial heartbeat but EMS lost it five minutes into the trip. There is expected lung damage." 

“Has anyone tried to remove the suit?” the doctor asked as he began to calculate what was best to save the hero. 

“EMS attempted to remove the mask to insert a tube, but the cloth delivered a shock.”

The doctor nodded not entirely surprised. “Try again, but with caution.”  
All the buzzing around the room turned to anxiety as the head nurse approached the head of the patient. She took a breath but did not hesitate as she gently grasped the black cowl and lifted it off. There was no time to feel relieved as it was immediately replaced with a pit of dread.

The face now revealed to the staff was not one belonging to an old aged hero of some terrifying creature of the night. No. The pale face of a boy now laid bleeding on the table, bruised and on death's door. He could not have been any older than eighteen and with that realization, the doctor snapped into action.  
* * *  
When he had done all he could, the doctor personally left to speak to the man with Batman. He had spoken with many family members and loved loves about his patient's conditions, but he was unusually unsteady about speaking with this man. Somewhere in his mind, he must have put together that this man must have worn the cowl before but that was not why he was nervous. It had to of been because of what he had to tell him.

The man stood when the doctor entered the room. There was no one else in the waiting area, which under any other circumstances would have been curious to the doctor but when his gaze met the man with the cane’s broken eyes, nothing else seemed to matter. 

“You may want to sit down,” the doctor began once he stood in front on the man. 

The man’s weight shifted but his stern face retained its frown. “I can manage.” 

The doctor nodded and he began to speak as calmly as the situation allowed. “The bullet in his shoulder caused multiple fractures but we believe his suit slowed it down enough to minimize the damage. The other bullet was also slowed however it caused a puncture in his lung.” He paused as the thought the man had reacted. However, he continued when the man nodded instead. “We were able to stop the bleeding, but his lungs have not regained function.” 

The man nodded gravely, but instead of expressing any form of distraught the man remained silent. The doctor did not know what he expected from the man, but he did expect some kind of reaction. Instead of trying to console the man, the doctor decided to continue giving the facts. 

“He has been moved to the eight floor on a respirator and will be closely monitored by myself and my personal staff.” 

At this, the man shifted on his cane and the doctor almost thought he saw a glisten in his eye. But he didn't see it when the man looked him in the eye again.

“May I see him?”

The doctor nodded and he began to lead the man back toward the hero.  
* * *  
The sun was coming up before Bruce began to feel tired. In his youth being active for an entire week would hardly have phased him, but now just watching Terry’s vitals fluctuate had stretched Bruce’s energy beyond the point of exhaustion. It seemed a nurse was running into silence some sort of alarm at least once an hour, and each time it took Bruce longer to relax back into his chair. He couldn't help it. Despite knowing how strong and stubborn Terry was, the sight of him laying pale with a tube down his throat burned hot enough to keep Bruce awake. 

As the sun began to rise, the moment began to run through Bruce’s mind again. It wasn’t the sound of the gun that had run Bruce’s blood cold, but the silence from Terry. He didn’t scream or even cry out. There was only a small inaudible gasp before his heart monitor began to spike. There was nothing Bruce could do for his partner except watch his vitals crash and call Barbara. 

She had come earlier in the night. Unsurprisingly, the press had found out which hospital Batman had been taken to so Barbara had set up a guard around the building to keep them out. When she had come in to tell him this, her eyes had immediately stuck to Terry. Even as she was speaking to Bruce she was constantly glancing back at the bed and messing with her grayed hair. As she was leaving, she abruptly stopped at the end of the bed.

“He’ll make it, Bruce,” she seemed to have said more to herself than to him, “He’s too much like you.”

Shaking the memory away, Bruce reached for the remote and turned the monitor to a news station. The shadowy newscasters spoke somberly in front of a live video feed of the hospital.

“-While there has been no word on the Batman, many witnesses from the top of the Wayne/Powers building claim to have witnessed Batman taking a watch from Mr. Powers and launching it into the air before the explosion took place above the city. What has been confirmed however that Batman was indeed shot multiple times and was taken here to Gotham General-“ 

Bruce's mind began to drift as his eyes paid more attention to the background. The camera was pointed directly at the front door but was probably set back about fifty meters. This allowed a wide shot that Bruce began to study. There was a large group of reporters huddled at the base of the entrance's steps which at the stop stood three of Barbara's officers. At first, Bruce was surprised to see so few guards, but then he took a closer look at the press. They were standing relatively still for a crowd and there was no shoving or shouting to be seen. Bruce watched almost in awe as a doctor walked out the door and up to the crowd without any evidence of rushing. Curious, he stood and looked out the window to see that the reports had made a wide arch around the doctor. No one was moving as the man made small jesters as he spoke. The gentleness of the press actually touched Bruce and he was so intrigued with the situation that he jumped when there was another gunshot.  
* * *  
Powers couldn't believe how easy it had been to get past the commissioner's defenses. Her entire focus had been on the back and side entrances which left the front wide open for him to take. Once inside, however, it became harder to navigate as it seemed every floor was empty. There were no staff members to shake for information and no police officers to follow as they ran to defend their precious hero. No one. All Powers could do was stalk each floor and listen.

It wasn’t until the eighth floor that Powers began to hear something. It was quiet at first, but the further he crept into the building the louder it became. When he realized it was a heart monitor, a smile broke across his face. 

He stopped in front of a door. The beeping was definitely coming from the inside, but Powers was listening for any others sounds. There was something that sounded like a pump moving air and the distant sound of the police outside, but beyond that the room was still. So, gripping his antique pistol, Powers kicked the door in. 

The only source of light came from dawn breaking through the window. It drenched the sterile room in fire reds and blinded Powers upon his entry. However, when his vision cleared he found that his gun was already pointed at the figure on the bed. At first, he thought it was a trick of the light that was distorting the unmasked bat, but after stepping closer to him a dark chuckle escaped his twisted lips.

“You’re just a boy,” he laughed astonished. Suddenly the Bat’s quips and petty jabs began to make more sense. 

Now standing at the boy's head, he allowed himself to admire the damage he had wrought. Despite his enemy being revealed as a youth, the sight of the bat with a respirator down his windpipe was not any less satisfying. Releasing one hand from its grip on the gun, Powers pushed back the kid's mess of hair from his face and frowned.

"I know you." Power's mind raced through all the times he had seen this face. "You are Bruce Wayne's errand boy." Faces, names and years began to knit together for Powers and he began to laugh manically. Enjoying the moment, he brought his gun to the boy's forehead and flashed a crazed smile. "What a twist."

Bruce’s cane had smacked own on top of Powers head and knocked the gun across the room before Powers could register what was going on. He had been so wrapped up in basking in the moment that he had not noticed Bruce hiding in the bathroom behind him or when he crept up with his cane raised. He still hadn’t reached until after Bruce had kicked him in the side and sent him slamming into the opposite wall. But by that point, Powers was staring down Bruce’s cane being held at his throat. 

“Stay away from my assistant.”

Despite literally being pinned, Powers still began to laugh with even more energy than before. Any suspicion he had had about the old man was instantly confirmed by the sudden rage flickering in his withered eyes. The day had begun so poorly, but now Powers was beginning to think everything was turning out wonderfully. 

“How delicious,” Powers cackled under Bruce’s sharp glare. “Mr. McGinnis couldn’t have been Batman for too long could he?” He shifted his weight but the tip of the cane began to press into his airway.

“Don’t move Powers,” Bruce hissed. 

“Oh please.”

With blinding speed, Bruce’s cane was knocked out of his fingers and a boot came crashing into his rib cage and sent him into the foot of Terry’s bed. Stars immediately swam across his vision as he hit the floor, and when they cleared Powers’ gun was aligned directly between his eyes. 

“What did you think you were going to do old man?”

Bruce's gut burned as Powers' boot made forceful contact with his abdomen. He was then hit in the jaw with the hilt of the pistol which sent Bruce collapsing on the floor.

“Are you going to die protecting your replacement?”

Bruce attempt to pick himself up was stopped with Powers' weight pressing down on the center of his back. He gritted his teeth and was able to spit a rebuttal.

“If I have to.”

“How sweet,” Powers mocked while digging his heel deeper into Bruce’s spin. “Oh what a treat,” the man nearly giggled, “I get to kill two Batmans in on day!”

With what little movement he could manage, Bruce was able to look up at Powers' sickening smile. Worst still, however, was watching his gun turning from Bruce and aiming at Terry.

“I think I’ll kill the kid first.”

With a final gunshot, Bruce's heart stopped.  
* * *  
Powers' body fell away to Reveal Barbara standing at the door holding a smoking gun. Still, stunned Bruce watched as his old partner rushed to his aid and helped him up. Nothing was said until after she knelt down and placed two fingers on Powers' neck. When she looked up at Bruce no words needed to be spoken.

“It’s over.” 

Despite everything that had happened, Bruce could only nod gravely. He doesn’t think of it long however as he watches Barbara approach the boy’s bed. He knows she’s not happy with what she did, and that she was probably trying to rationalize her decision.

“Thank you,” he simply said. 

The woman nodded while keeping her eyes on Terry. She had never really gotten along with the kid before, but she had never doubted his heroism. His drive rivaled Bruce's when it came to protecting this city. So much so, it didn't surprise Barbara that this had happened. Trying to calm herself, she lifts a hand to Terry's mess of hair. She smooths it out of his face as she spoke to Bruce.

“Of course. This city owes Batman everything,” she smiles sadly before looking back up to Bruce. “Besides, we can’t have some nut job wrongly kill a random comatose patient.”

Bruce can't help but smirk at the commissioner's comment, and he leans on his cane as he nods. "That would be very unfortunate."  
* * *  
Terry’s eyes fluttered for the third time in a week but this time he felt himself actually waking. Before he had only brisked the edge of consciousness with blurry images of nurses, sharp pulses of a heart monitor and the constant loom of Bruce. He was always there. Now, with his senses slowly returning, Terry could feel Bruce still sitting next to him alert despite what seemed to be late hours. When Terry finally opened his eyes, he heard Bruce react with a sudden intake of air and holding it. Terry couldn’t help but smile softly at the crack in the man’s cold demeanor. 

"Hey old man," Terry tried to say, but it came out incoherently when a sudden pain stabbed his chest he began to cough violently. From Terry's perspective, Bruce seemed to move faster than his age should allow as he reached for an unseen glass of water and held it up to Terry's lips. The water does help, but he must still have been disoriented because he though he felt Bruce brush back the hair Terry's face. But Terry had had that feeling a lot when he was under.

"Take it, easy kid," Bruce said quietly. He was very gentle with the cup and only allowed small amounts of water to tip close enough for Terry to drink. As Terry took another sip, he couldn’t help think of all the other time Bruce much have done this. 

He put the cup down and took a moment before speaking again. “I’ll go get the nurse.”

“Bruce?”

Terry’s shaky voice stopped the man from turning. His hand gripped is cane tighter as he could see the young man’s pain with every word. 

“The city?”

A true smile crept across Bruce’s face as Terry waited anxiously for his answer. After being shot and standing on the edge of death for days, the boy’s first question he asked was about the safety of others. Bruce couldn’t suppress the swell of pride in his chest.

“Safe,” he answered still smiling, “The bomb cleared the city.”

Terry’s face relaxed and his eyes began to droop again. His lips curled into a smile in relief of the city’s safety and felt himself being pulled back under. He managed to breathe one more sentence before succumbing to unconsciousness. 

“Thank you.”

Bruce watched Terry’s breathing fall back into a steady rhythm. His head drops gravely, but he still whispers his reply with a smile. 

"No. Thank you, Batman."

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any grammar or spelling mishaps. I didn't have time to have my editor look at it but I still wanted to post it. Hope you liked it!


End file.
